ELON — Their mentality shaken, members of the Elon University baseball team trudged back to their dugout after coach Mike Kennedy spoke to them for 13 minutes after Wednesday night’s game.

After going down by four in the fifth inning, the Phoenix couldn’t recover. A late rally fell short of the mark as UNC Wilmington won 8-5 at Latham Park to sweep the season series against Elon.

“We had chances and we gave them too many chances,” Kennedy said. “We advanced runners with wild pitches and mistakes. We’ve just got to cash in. We had a lot of chances. We just can’t get big hits.”

The Seahawks (24-10) led 2-1 going into the top of the fifth. After a passed ball (one of four passed balls or wild pitches for the Phoenix) moved UNCW freshman shortstop Terence Connelly from first to second base, center fielder Luis Renvill cracked a double to left center field, scoring Connelly. On the next pitch, senior right fielder Tyler Molinaro creamed pitcher Jacob Baker’s pitch over the left-field wall and the Seahawks led 5-1.

The offense continued to pour in for the Seahawks. Left fielder Luke Dunlap hit a two-run shot off pitcher / designated hitter Danny Lynch in the seventh and freshman outfielder Christian Wolfe scored on second baseman Dillon Bass’ infield single in the eighth as UNCW took an 8-1 lead.

Lynch struck back with a three-run homer — the first of his college career — in the bottom of the eighth to pull Elon (20-15) within four. Then third baseman Chris Bresnahan moved from second to third base on a dropped pitch and scored on the catcher’s errant throw to third. All of a sudden, the Phoenix was within three.

After pitcher Nate Young got three outs, Elon had two runners on base with no outs in the bottom of the ninth. But UNCW junior pitcher Kelly Secrest got Elon second baseman Wil Leathers to pop out, first baseman Tyler McVicar to flyout to center field and struck out Lynch.

The Phoenix stranded 12 runners on base, a number Elon shortstop Antonio Alvarez, who went 3-for-5 with two runs, said wasn’t acceptable.

“If you leave 12 guys on base, you shouldn’t expect to win the game,” he said. “Right now, when there’s guys on base and there’s less than one out, we’ve got to be able to move them over, we’ve got to be able to drive them in. Leaving 12 guys on base, you can’t win like that.”

Baker took the loss, giving up four earned runs on 90 pitches in 4 2/3 innings. He also had three wild pitches.

Freshman pitcher William Shepley notched his first career win for the Seahawks by getting two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Secrest got the credit for his third save of the season.

Page 2 of 2 - “We’ve got to compete,” Kennedy said. “I thought we left 12 guys on base because we didn’t compete, we didn’t have competitive at-bats. We gave in, we gave up. Early in the game, we have three or four guys who don’t have a good at-bat and they come in and it’s the end of the world. And that carries over to the next three, four, five at-bats, however many they’ve got. That can’t happen.”

Alvarez said that needed to change before this weekend, when the Phoenix visits nationally ranked Louisville for a three-game series.

“As soon as something bad happens, we’re getting in our heads that, ‘Oh, here we go again,’ ” Alvarez said. “We just need to step it up and this weekend when we’re going to Louisville, we’re playing the No. 8 team in the country and we need to go down there and give it our all and turn it around.”